“You speak as though you were intending to abandon us, Count.”
“I hope that the abandonment will be only a temporary one, Fräulein; but I fear that her Majesty would derive little benefit from her day of rest if I were in the neighbourhood.”
“Then what do you propose to do?”
“Go out into the world—back to Ortojuk, perhaps—and see what is going on, and whether our schemes have been penetrated.”
“This is quite unnecessary, Count, and you know it. You are going wilfully into danger—exposing us to danger, even—because you cannot make allowances for her Majesty’s hasty words spoken in a moment of weariness.”
“Make allowances? I have been doing nothing else since I have been sitting here. I was a little surprised at the moment, I grant; but since then I have reflected that I was a fool not to expect just what I got. It is not my first experience of her Majesty’s gratitude, you will remember.”
“Count, you are cruelly unjust. Think of the trials which have beset the Queen since we left Tatarjé; of all the vicissitudes——”
“I have thought of them all, Fräulein. The only thing I had not expected was to be abused for what I had not done, and for that I was a fool, as I tell you. Are you not satisfied with that?”
“Satisfied, when every word you say brings an accusation against her Majesty? You are casting the blame on the woman, as the men always do.”
“May I ask whether you think I am the person to blame, Fräulein?”